Time You Speedy Animal

HOWDY. Long time no see! Apologies for the forever hiatus. A few things have been pulling me away from this blog. One being life. Two being that my photoshop expired so I can't shrink my camera photos to fit on the blog! Tech issues kill me. So basically I have tons of content and no way to upload it all. (Well I'm actually positive there's a way to resize images I've just been too busy to figure it out.)

Because I'm sure you were wondering! You were wondering, right. ;)

If I had to sum up these past few weeks it'd go something like this: treats, events, messes, discipline, more treats, teething, hints of Michael. It's been a whirlwind like always but so fun to watch these two kids become playmates! The other day I was watching them both laying on their tummies playing with a bus and my mama heart just about melted! (Made up for all those times they're fighting over the same toy instead of sharing, ha.) We're out of the high-maintenance newborn phase which I'LL ADMIT is not my fave. Yes cuddly newborns are adorable but then you're exhausted all the time and sweet cuddles can only get you so far before you want to collapse. We're past that, hallelujah! We're onto the crawling, playing, eating, interacting phase which all of a sudden makes everything so much fun.

SORRY for lame pics. I guess the only iphone photos I take are of food or selfies - HA. So that's what you get! Lucky you.

Bullet points from life lately because my mind can't function in paragraphs right now:

- Gym! Cannon's old enough for daycare so I'm back at it and it's making me SO happy. I'm a much nicer mama when I can sweat my guts out for an hour.

- Cannon is finally loving food! Took a solid month of spitting it out but now he'll down a jar of baby food in minutes. So I'm praying for even more chunk(!!!)

- Lydia's little sentences are just about the sweetest thing. I love seeing how her mind works. For example:

Me: The car is just up here, we're almost there. 

Lydia: No mom, the car's not UP, it's down! It's on the ground! That's silly mama. 

She got me. 

- Michael still doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up. He's only been trying to decide for like 25 years ;). Top choices currently are orthopedics, ENT and neurosurgery. But tomorrow he may want to be an OB, who knows! (Hopefully someone? We need to decide, ha.)

- HOW do you mamas keep up with all the kid clothes?? Lydia and Cannon are growing like weeds,  so I need two new wardrobes every 4 months! (Literally Lydia's pants are to her calves and Cannon's onesies don't button. Oops.)

- My sister Liv gets married in less than 3 weeks! Scott is the NICEST guy and they seriously could not be more perfect for each other. Also Liv has been zero touchy-feely her whole life (she looved all my obnoxious hugging and hand touching ;) ) but suddenly she's turned into the PDA queen?! I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS. Love them.

- For those who have asked, Potty Training is over! Went as great as we could've hoped for! I'll do a whole post so I can refer back to it for Cannon. At this point she just tells me when she has to go, we run to the potty, she does her stuff and I help her wipe and wash and then we're good to go!

- I am decluttering my house and it is WONDERFUL. Because somehow for a tiny family of four we have accumulated a ton of junk. HA. So I'm working my way through every room and organizing and selling and donating and I feel like a new zen-ish person. 

- Also I'll be having a huge instagram sale for clothes in the next few weeks. I admittedly have more clothes than anyone I know, and more clothes than any normal person needs. Because I'm a hoarder. So I'm doing a massive clean out - keep your eyes peeled and I'll let you know when it all goes live!

Anyway, there's the scoop on us! One of these nights I'll figure out my pictures and we'll get back on the cute wagon.

Green jumper: Free People

Yellow tee: Brandy Melville

Chambray dress: Urban Outfitters

Pink earrings: J.Crew

Striped tee: Madewell

Pink scarf: J.Crew

Navy culottes: Madewell

Pink flats: vintage

Workout top: Lulu

Workout leggings: Zella

Everyone Needs a Good Cry

DISCLAIMER: This whole thing is pretty much just so I can read back on it in three months and remember all of the chaos. So feel free to pass on by ;). HA.

It has been the craziest month EVER. And not in the "so many fun things going on!" way. Like literally I have never felt more stressed in my life, and I've done some pretty busy things. I'd never had an anxiety attack before; I have a few friends who have, and while I understood what they were describing, I hadn't actually experienced that. Until this week! Yay. I've just had ALL. THE. THINGS going on. Too many. And most of them have been great things! (i.e. so much family time!) But after a while even lots of good things just add up to be too much, ya know? A list for funsies:

My family in town, wherein I offended family members because I invited friends over. I felt awful. I'm so sorry. Stinkin 95% extrovert Annika ( here) cannot help herself apparently. 

Michael's family in town.

Cousin's baby blessing. 

4th of July with Michael's family. 

Family pictures, wherein we realized the next day there wasn't one of the whole family (and even though it wasn't anyone's fault it kind of felt like my fault because we used my camera?).

Michael's final exam.

My family back in town.

Driving my sister to and from her BYU camp every day for a week.

Potty training Lydia, wherein I became a crazy person for 3 days.

Mild anxiety attack.

24th of July parade, wherein my parked car got keyed (thank you downtown SLC).

24th of July bbq with Michael's family. 

Lydia being afraid to poop, so it takes about 1.5 hours back and forth from the potty any time she needs to go.

MAJOR FLOOD.

Renting all the fans from far away places. 

Really bad finger cut that I should've gotten stitches for but instead I'll just have a cool scar.

Running to Home Depot at 9:30pm to build a gutter and avoid yet another major flood.

Lydia's birthday party, wherein I offended half of earth by keeping it small because we are broke and I cannot feed more than 15 people. But really I've been crying because I feel so bad (extrovert).

Lydia and Cannon sleeping in the same room because of said flood, resulting in terrible sleep for all three of us.

Michael working night shifts. 

So many church responsibilities.

My family back in town.

Roof getting fixed. 

Lydia's actual birthday. 

Carpet getting fixed. 

A steady diet of diet coke and protein bars for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

Shattered my phone.

Lydia pooping her pants and Cannon simultaneously screaming his head off while getting my phone fixed, wherein I cried in public.

UGH.

On top of all this we are SO tight on money right now. We get our loan in a couple weeks and we are just holding on for dear life till then. We are fine, it's just another added stressor when I've had a terrible day and my house is a disaster (literally, our basement is out of commission) and there's nothing for dinner and we can't just go run and grab something because we have no money so we eat popcorn for dinner, again. ***Actually turning out to be a great diet plan. HA.

I am just plain exhausted. I cannot do it all. I cannot please everyone, I've tried. I can hardly get an hour by myself, and I can't even dream of an hour by myself with NOTHING TO DO. It's been freakin busy. And all of this with no husband, really. 

You know it's bad when every time Michael and I talk, our Big Dream goes from a family cruise, to a couple's cruise, to just one night at a hotel (sleeping in! ah it must be magical!), to just dinner alone. HAHAHAHA. We are just really fun people. 

Speaking of which, I saw a cute mom of two driving a mini van with the bumper sticker "I used to be cool" on it. Ha! That made me lol real good. My life. 

And finally, my favorite thing I've heard recently is: "Treat everyone as if they are going through something really difficult, and more than half the time you'll be right." 

IS THAT NOT TRUE or what. So that's what I've been trying to do the last few weeks. Everyone has trials, even if it doesn't seem like it. Even if their hair is perfect or their kids already know how to read French backwards or their husbands aren't gone 15 hours a day, everyone has trials. So treat them tenderly :).